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COMMANDERY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



WAR PAPER 30. 



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Saqciers, l<qo;jOille, (&ein., 

goOerriber 29, 18S3. 






Military ©rder of {^le bo^al be^ion 



United States. 



CDMMAMDEl^y OF THE DI^TI^ICT OF COLUiy[Bli\. 



WAR PAPERS. 



30 



TKe >iP^ttack: l/pon. aad ©efcnse of "Fsrl Sanders, 
D^n,s2^ville, Tena., ^November 29, 1863. 

PREPARED BY COMPANION 

Captain 

ROBERT ARMOUR, 

Late U. S. V., 



READ AT THE STATED MEETING OF DECEMBER 7, 1898. 



J a^^^jy**-^! 



■Ai 



•^^- 






The very interesting paper on General W. P. Sanders, read 
by Companion Kniffin at a recent meeting of the Commandery 
recalled many incidents of the East Tennessee Campaign, 
and having witnessed the engagement in which General 
Sanders received his death wound while at the head of his 
command resisting the advance of the enemy, it has occurred 
to me that it might prove interesting to dwell for a short 
time upon what transpired in and around Knoxville during 
its seige by Longstreet in November, 1863, more particularly 
the attack upon and defense of the fort in which my regiment, 
the Seventy-ninth New York, commonly known as the " High- 
landers," was stationed, and which, after his death, was 
named Fort Sanders in honor of his memory. 

It will be remembered that after the battle of Gettysburg 
the Confederate General Longstreet had been sent with a 
strong force to reinforce General Bragg, and had arrived in 
time to participate in the battle of Chickamauga. Burn- 
side's occupation of East Tennessee was a constant menace 
to Bragg's right flank and rear, and, notwithstanding the 
fact that the Army of the Cumberland had been reinforced 
by the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps, under General Hooker, 
and also that a strong force under Sherman was moving from 
Vicksburg for the same purpose, Bragg thought himself able 
to cope with the Union army without the aid of Longstreet, 
and, flushed with success, fell into the natural error of under- 



rating his enemy's prowe^^nd Longstreet was detached 
and ordered to drive Burnside out of Tennessee, 
The Union forces were stretched along the East Ten_ 
nessee, Virginia, and Georgia railroad, the left being at 
Morristown in the northeast, while the right extended south 
as far as Loudon, where the railroad crosses the Holston river, 
about 35 miles southwest from Knoxville. 

General Grant, upon learning of Longstreet's departure 
from Bragg's army, telegraphed Burnside that he would en- 
deavor to create a diversion in his favor by an attack on Bragg. 
On November 12th Burnside replied that he would try and 
hold Longstreet in his front until the Army of the Cumberland 
was ready to strike. 

Longstreet's movements proved more rapid than was ex- 
pected, perhaps, for on the 13th our outposts at Loudon were 
attacked and a brisk engagement ensued, resulting in some 
loss on both sides. The enemy was driven back, and as our 
skirmishers advanced General R. B. Potter, our division com- 
mander, accompanied the line for the purpose of more clearly 
observing the situation. 

A new chaplain, in the person of Rev. Crammond Kennedy, 
a young Scotchman, who was then called the "boy preacher," 
had reported to the Seventy-ninth a month previous. His 
trip from Stevenson, Tenn., through the enemy's country, 
was a memorable one, and he had had occasion to exhibit 
considerable pluck of the kind not usually displayed by or 
expected from non-combatants. Being at the front at this 
time he accompanied General Potter with the advance, but in 
attempting to return to his regiment alone he lost his way. 
He had ridden nearly down to Hough's Ferry, on the Holston 
a little more than a mile from Loudon in an air line, but bv 
the windings of the river much farther. It was dusk; the 



chaplain knew he had lost his way, and while watering his 
horse at a brook a woman appeared on the bank above him 
and with warning voice and gestures implored him to go 
back, adding that there were thousands of rebels down by 
the ferry, and that a party of four had just stopped at her 
house to inquire for a Yankee officer that had been observed 
prowling about. Kennedy at once turned back, but on 
reaching the road observed in a field to the left and posted 
behind a rail fence the four rebels who had been looking for 
him. He could not retreat, for the bulk of the rebel force 
was at the river; his only chance was to run the gauntlet of 
the fire of four rifles. As he drew near at a steady gallop 
he was ordered to halt, but throwing himself along his horse's 
back and giving him the reins, he dashed by, the bullets from 
the rifles flying harmlessly over his head. When he reached 
the brow of the hill a little ways beyond, he turned and waved 
his cap in token of farewell and pushed on and reached our 
lines without further molestation. That chaplain is now 
Crammond Kennedy, a prominent lawyer of our city, and, I 
am glad to say, a member of this Commandery. 

The report by the chaplain of what he had seen and heard 
having been communicated to General Burnside, and that 
officer realizing that the enemy's crossing at Hough's Ferry 
would turn our right flank at Loudon, ordered the immediate 
evacuation of the latter, thus in all probability saving our 
force at that point from almost certain destruction. 

Burnside at once telegraphed Grant that as his flank was 
turned and the po.~i ion at Louden rendered untenable, he 
would concentrate his forces and fall back on Knoxville, and 
thus draw Longstreet as far from Bragg as possible. With 
his small force, Burnside could, of course, hope to do little 
more in the open field than to hold Longstreet in check long 



enough to give us a chance 4^i)ut Knoxville in a condition 
for defence, and liis ])lans were made accordingly. 

The next morning the advance of I>ongstreet's force crossed 
the river at Hough's Ferry, but was gallantly resisted by a 
portion of General White's division of the Twenty-third Corps 
and prevented from advancing far from the ferry that day. 
We learned from a numlicrof prisoners, captured the day before, 
that Longstreet, to whose command they belonged, was on 
our front, and meant "to clean us out of East Tennessee," and 
that as the Union Army, then at Chattanooga, had been so 
thoroughly whipped in the battle of Chickamauga, we could 
not hope for help from that quarter, and on their theory our 
fate was sealed. As we had met Longstreet's veterans upon 
other fields, we realized that "foemen worthy of our steel" 
were before us; yet such was the confidence in General Burn- 
side that the troops were not at all disconcerted. The retreat 
was continued, and early on the morning of the i6th firing 
on our right flank indicated that the enemy was on the Kin g- 
ston road endeavoring to reach the cross-roads at Campbell's 
station before us and cut off our retreat to Knoxville, but 
we had the inside track , and the Second division of the corps 
under Colonel Hartranft reached the cross-roads at Campbell's 
Station first and was at once deployed across the Kingston 
road, over which the main body of the enemy was advancing. 
The artillery moved rapidly to the high ground east of the 
station, and my regiment was placed in support of Benjamin's 
battery of 20 pounders. From this point the entire field was in 
plain sight, and from it we witnessed the battle of Campbell's 
Station, a description of which I shall not attempt in this paper 
further than to say that it was stubbornly contested, and 
though a greatly superior force had been fought while we were 
on retreat, our lines had not been broken. 



Longstreet recognized the importance of a victory at this 
point, for in his report he says: "If General Jenkins could 
have made his attack * * * or if he could have made it 
after the enemy had taken his second position, we must have 
destroyed his force, recovered East Tennessee, and in all 
probability captured the greater portion of the enemy's forces." 

Darkness put an end to the engagement, and soon the march 
to Knoxville was resumed, and by midnight the troops were 
within a short distance of that city, which was entered on the 
17th. 

The principal defensive work was a fort half a mile west of 
the city and near 'the Kingston turnpike. It had been 
begun by the enemy during his occupancy of the town, and 
was called by them Fort Loudon. But little progress had been 
made towards its completion until it became evident that a 
retreat from Lenoir was necessary, when Captain O. M. Poe, 
then, and later, a prominent officer of the engineer corps, U. 
S. Army, and at one time a member of this Commandery, took 
measures to put the work in a defensive state. A large 
number of laborers had been employed night and day for that 
purpose, and when the troops arrived Lieut. S. N. Benjamin, 
then also chief of artillery, whom many of us well remember 
later as Asst. Adjutant General of the army, had been specially 
charged with its defense, and he requested that the High- 
landers should be assigned to duty as the regular garrison. 
Benjamin was also at one time a member of this Commandery. 

When we entered the fort an engagement was in progress 
about a mile distant on the Kingston road between the enemy's 
advance under General McLaw and our cavalry and mounted 
infantry under General W. P. Sanders of the Twenty-third 
Corps. That officer had been ordered to hold the enemy in 
check as long as possible in order that the troops arriving 



8 



might be placed in proper |!^Rtions to resist attack. For 
several hours Sander's command held the enemy at bay, but 
was gradually driven in by superior numbers until the Con- 
federates came within short range of the shells from our 20 
pounders, when the engagement ceased for a while. In the 
afternoon the hght was renewed, and as the combatants were 
in plain sight about half a mile distant, we watched 
the operations with a great deal of interest. Benjamin's 
guns sent several shells into the enemy's lines, but the oppos- 
ing forces were so close together that our own men were in as 
great danger from the shells as were the enemy, and Benjamin's 
firing ceased. 

McLaw had been ordered by Longstreet to push on and 
force his way into the city, and, reinforcements arriving, he 
finally drove Sanders from his position, and we made all readi- 
ness to give the enemy a warm reception should he come with- 
in range of our rifles. General Burnside was looking over the 
parapet, watching the engagement, and when he saw Sanders 
driven back he went from point to point along the west front of 
the fort , encouraging the men and advising them to ' ' keep cool , 
fire low, and be sure and hit something every time." But 
the enemy contented himself with driving back Sanders' force 
and occupying the crest of the hill. General Sanders, the 
gallant soldier, was mortally wounded while nobly performing 
his duty, and died a day or two afterwards, and our fort, as 
I have already mentioned, was named in honor to his memory. 
Just before dark it was observed that the ground to the north- 
west of the fort and about a mile distant was also occupied 
by the enemy, and our pickets were established on the north 
and west about 400 yards distant from the fort and about 
an equal distance from those of the enemy. Thus ended the 
first day of the siege. 



In front of Fort Sanders there was a wire entanglement 
placed there by Lieutenant Benjamin, the wires strung from 
stump to stump in order to obstruct and break up the lines 
of an attacking force. The only portions of the fort at all in 
a defensive condition when we entered it were the west and a 
portion of the north fronts, and even in these no embrasures 
had been cut. 

The second day of the siege the garrison was called up early, 
and at once began to work on the fort. With the appearance 
of daylight the opposing pickets began firing, and by noon 
bullets were flying quite lively, occasionally one whistling over 
the fort, and the movement of the enemy's troops toward our 
right was observed. In the afternoon a flag stafi. was raised 
in the fort, and the flinging of Old Glory to the breeze was the 
signal for hearty cheers. The enemy also saluted it with a 
furious fire of artillery, but, although many of the shells burst 
in and near the fort, they did little or no damage, and "Our 
flag was still there." 

On the third day the enemy advanced his picket line, and 
the bullets were singing over the fort in very unpleasant fre- 
quency, which caused all hands, from the brigade commander 
down to the drummer boy, to duck and dodge in a manner not 
perhaps creditable to our soldiers. 

On the fourth day of the siege only quarter rations were 
issued, and coffee rations wholly discontinued. The in- 
genuity of the boys was put to the test to provide substitutes. 
An article labeled "Jeff Davis' Substitute," purchased in the 
town at 75 cents per pound, was found to be simply a mixture 
of wheat and chicory — as big a fraud as its illustrious proto- 
type. 

On the fifth day two men of the picket relief were wounded, 
and it was found more prudent to change pickets under cover 



lO 

of darkness, and the reliefs 4t^e made up at roll call, which 
was, under orders, required to be had at 5 o'clock each morn- 
ing. 

On the sixth day one of the cooks was killed while carrying 
rations to the outposts, about 5 o'clock in the evening. At 
nine o'clock the pickets of the second division, some distance 
to our right, were attacked and driven in, and the impression 
prevailed that a general attack was to be made. 

On the seventh day a man of my company, wdio had just 
partaken of his frugal meal and was about to light his pipe, 
was struck by a minie bullet in the back of the neck and fell 
forward, as we supposed, dead. Almost immediately, how- 
ever, he picked himself up and quietly spat out blood and the 
bullet into his hand. Mention is made of this case because of 
the fact that some months before the man had been tried by 
court martial for desertion, found guilty, and sentenced to be 
shot, and had been under guard awaiting the execution of the 
sentence, which had been duly approved and ordered. The 
excitement incident upon the enemy's advance, however, 
had caused some delay, and after the siege had commenced, 
the authorities appeared to be of the opinion that the taking 
of the lives of our men should be devolved upon the enemy, 
who appeared to be eminently well qualified for that duty, 
and ordered that all prisoners be sent to their companies; and 
company commanders were instructed to place them upon 
any duty more dangerous than another. This man had served 
several turns of duty at the outpost. The injury proved a 
severe one, but finally he was well enough to be removed to 
New York, and in time recovered, and is still in a good state 
of preservation, and is at present, and for many years past 
has been a prosperous and useful citizen of Maryland. This 
was shooting a man to save his life. 



II 



On the eighth day those on the right of our picket Hne 
discovered that the lines of the enemy had again been con- 
siderably advanced and there was no longer any chafing 
between the rival pickets as on former occasions; each side 
seemed now to realize that the situation was too serious for 
anything but hard knocks. Three more of our men were 
wounded in the fort, among whom was mv first Lieutenant, 
Chas. Watson. Th~e moon that evening was full and the night 
beautiful and clear. As we lay wrapped in our overcoats and 
blankets, listening and watching for the least movement of 
the enemy we could occasionally hear the sound of a pickaxe 
as it struck a stone. This at once drove all sentimental 
thoughts from our minds and brought us back from reveries 
of home and friends to the stern realities of our situation. 
It was cold, too, and as fires were interdicted, even the strik- 
ing of a match prohibited, we found it difficult to keep warm. 
The sound of the digging told us in no uncertain tones that 
the climax was approaching, that the assault might soon be 
expected, and the great question decided whether we or the 
enemy should winter in Knoxville. 

The morning of the tenth day opened clear and pleasant. 
One of the holes in the ground in front of the fort was occupied 
by two men who, to relieve the monotony of the hour, thought 
they would try to get a shot at the Johnnies. The incident 
has been thus related: "Campbell held his cap up on his 
ramrod while I had my gun levelled ready to fire; the reb's gun 
and my own spoke almost simultaneously, and Campbell ex- 
claimed ' Damn it, I'm hit.' The Johnnie was sharp, and had 
aimed two feet or more bclczv the cap ; the wound had to be 
dressed in the little pit, as it would have been certain death to 
attempt to reach the fort before dark." At eight o'clock in 
the evening we heard great cheering or yelling within the 



12 

encm\''s line, supplemented vi^Ri music by their l:)ands; when 
this ([uieted down "How are you, Vicksburg?" was asked by 
the rebel pickets, to which was re])lied " Vou haint got us yet." 
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush;" some artillery 
firing was indulged in, but at midnight all was quiet. We 
afterward learned that the arrival of reinforcements to the 
encmv with a report that Bragg's army had beaten Grant 
was the cause of their rejoicing. 

The eleventh day opened rainy and cold, and the mud in 
Fort Sanders was quite deep ; some grumbling on that account ; 
l)Ut a light-hearted fellow would break out with the refrain 
"We're happv because it can't last;" "Why it's all in the 
three years, bovs." In the afternoon the enemy was observed 
moving large bodies of troops toward our right, and an assault 
in that direction was looked for, but night closed in without 
anv demonstration; at eleven o'clock a general alarm was 
sounded. "Fall in, boys! They're coming! Every man to 
his post!" Little excitement followed, but a grim deter- 
mination to do all that was possible was apparent. Our 
batteries fired a few shots, l)Ut as the enemy did not appear 
the firing soon ceased. Our pickets had been driven in and 
were now lying close up to the ditch of the fort, and it was 
evident that daylight would bring us face to face. 

Lieut. Benjamin had prepared a number of 20-pounder shells 
to be used in case of attack ; the fuses had been cut at 20 seconds 
and would explode very soon after reaching the'bottom of the 
ditch. These shells had been laid in rows on the banquette 
tread, at various points on the west and north fronts of the 
fort, ready for instant use, and, very dangerous neighbors 
that they were, we often wished the "darned things" were 
somewhere else. Peering over the Ijreastworks in the darkness 
failed to reveal the enemy of which we had seen or heard noth- 
ing since our pickets had l)een driven in. 



13 

We remained under arms all night, and care was taken 
that abundance of ammunition should be available; all spare 
rifles were loaded and placed in convenient places, and nearly 
all were double shotted as were also the 12-pounder howitzers 
with grape or canister, while "number four" stood with 
lanyard in hand ready to fire. In this condition the night 
was passed, but as darkness gave place tg the gray dawn on 
the morning of the 29th, and twelfth day of the siege, we 
soon had news from the enemy ; a gun was fired from their bat- 
tery near the Armstrong House, used as Longstreet's head- 
quarters, and this appeared to be the signal, for immediately 
their whole line of guns opened and for a few minutes we wit- 
nessed as fine a display of skyrockets as we had ever seen. 
Our experience for two years and a half had convinced us 
that the danger from shells was not always in keeping with 
their lusty voice, and realizing that their infantry could not 
advance while the shelling continued, we lay low and watched 
the fireworks. The shrieks of the murderous missiles were 
well calculated to shake the morale of men less accustomed 
to such music. At length the fire ceased, and we at once real- 
ized that we had business on hand ! Then, as has been beauti- 
fully said, "was a time for patriots to bethink them of the 
flag — that wonderful fabric, woven of air and sunshine — the air 
of freedom and the sunshine of God's hope — men's hearts the 
shuttles, and all history the loom; it was a time for patriots 
to bethink them of the flag." 

The officer's cry, " Now, boys, look sharp! and in the gray 
dawn the long line of brave fellows was seen pushing towards 
us, and to death! Volleys of musketry and the yells of the 
enemy broke upon our ears, and a glance revealed that the 
northwest bastion was the point to which they intended to 
give attention first. 



14 

Xot a sliot was tired fron^^ir fori until the enemy were 
within lift\" x'ards of the muzzles of our ]jieees; the artillery, 
depressed to the lowest point, hurled double and triple 
charges of canister into the masses of the enemy. Our men, 
intelligent as they were and needing but little encouragement 
from their ofihcers, were ])ouring a destructive fire into the 
enemy ; some over the cotton bales which had been placed on 
top of the parapet, others through the embrasures occupied 
by the artillery, while from the flank a destructive fire was 
poured u])on them from the rifles of the Highlanders, as well 
as from those of the Second .Michigan and a portion of the 
Twenty-ninth Massachusetts, which had been moved to the 
north front of the fort and adjoined us on the right, from 
which points they could sweep the ditch with their rifles. 
While the excitement was great, all buckled down to their 
work and encouraged one another l)y shouting "Give it to 
them, boys ! Remember Vicksburg ! Remember James Island ! " 
Those were battles in which the conditions were reversed ; 
they then were inside and we were on the outside, and in 
those attacks many of our bravest and best gave up their 
lives. Hoping to escape our murderous fire many of the enemy 
jumped into the ditch. Now was Benjamin's opportunity; 
with a piece of portfire he lighted the short fuse of the 20 pound 
shells already referred to and rolled them down among the 
living mass below, and as they burst yells, shrieks and groans 
attested their bloody work! At length the enemy's fire 
slackened, and we could see many of them hurrying to the rear. 
A cheer went up from our throats which was instantly 
answered l)y a chorus of yells from a fresh column of the 
enemy, who, nothing daunted b\- the repulse of their hrst line 
crowded up to the assault. 

The wires trip many and break up their lines; many fall to 



15 

rise no more, but the living press forward. The assaulting 
party is now raining bullets through the embrasures and 
along the edge of the parapets. But the fire from within is 
as lively as before, for there.were as earnest hearts within the 
fort as without — many, who, though adopted citizens, had 
patriotically taken up arms in defense of the Republic, to 
assist in upholding the dear old flag, proud of being among those 
who battled for the preservation of the Union in its integrity,' 
and the flag in its glory, and fully determined that the inhabi- 
tants of the hills of Tennessee should be as proud of their achieve- 
ments as have ever been the inhabitants of the hills of Scot- 
land, whence they hailed, of the achievements of their fore- 
fathers. The brave rebels crowded up to the ditch as the flrst 
line had done, and death, in the bullets from our rifles, claimed 
many for his own. Shells were bursting in the ditch, literally 
tearing the poor fellows to pieces and scattering the fragments 
far and near, and to most of those who entered, it was indeed 
the last ditch. A yell louder than usual causes us to glance 
in the direction of the sound. There on the very angle of the 
bastion we see a rebel flag rising above the exterior crest, 
and soon appears the head and shoulders of the bearer! 
Brave fellow! but his last moment was at hand, for a number 
of rifles were discharged, and with the flag staff clutched in a 
death grip, he' rolls to the bottom of the ditch, riddled with 
Yankee bullets. Another tries to succeed him, and shares the 
same fate. Still others crowd on. They have formed a 
temporary bridge over the ditch, and are making desperate 
efforts to scale the parapet.' At one point two of the enemy 
appeared within a few feet of a sergeant, who, in the excite- 
ment, had discharged his piece before withdrawing his ram- 
rod. Unable to reload, he clubbed his rifle and flung it at them, 
hitting neither of them. The next instant he had seized an 



i6 

axe, and hurled it at the appr^i^iing foe; it hit and knocked 
one down, and the other fell at the same moment, pierced by 
a l)ullet. Again the re])el hre slackens a little, and a few of 
our men jump on the parapet at the angle, and capture a rebel 
flag which some brave fellows still insisted on planting upon 
the fort. A few more spasmodic eft'orts and the enemy's hre 
ceases; soon we notice they are retreating, and the command 
is given to cease firing. Those of the enemy within reach of 
our voices are called upon to surrender, and they enter the 
fort by wav of the embrasures. One fellow, an Irishman, 
with a wounded arm, said: " Yees Yankees is divils! If yees 
can't shoot us yees'll thry to break our necks over the d — d 
wires." Another, as he reached for a light for his pipe, said: 
■■ Bedad, bovs, Gineral Longstreet tould us we'd be in Knox- 
ville the night, but, be Jasus, he didn't think it "ud be as 
prisoners of war." 

The sun not yet far above the horizon and yet how much 
had been crowded into those early hours of that Sabbath 
morning. Three brigades of the flower of Longstreet's 
veteran armv had Ijeen hurled against a handful of men com- 
paratively with the knowledge that the point of attack was 
the key to Knoxville and must be captured, and they had 
displayed bravery and courage never surpassed by soldiers. 
But notwithstanding the persistence of tlieir attack, they had 
signally failed. It may not be said that the failure was be- 
cause of lack of courage, for, as has been already said, that 
was surely not wanting. But they were opposed by men as 
brave as they equally determined that if Knoxville was taken 
the enemy must enter by a different route; and, protected by 
earthworks, we had great advantage and were enabled to 
inflict upon our enemy losses out of all proportion to that suf- 
fered by ourselves. The enemy's loss, as given in their official 



^7 

returns, was 129 killed, 458 wounded, and 226 prisoners, 
aggregate 813. Besides this, we captured three battle flags 
and nearly 600 stand of small arms, and when it is stated 
that the loss sustained on that November morning by the 
defenders of Fort Sanders was only about 20, of whom 4 killed 
and 5 wounded belonged to my regiment, it should be readily 
understood whv the Confederates, who almost invariably 
had the choice of position, and verv often fortifications to 
protect them, found it possible to battle against superior 
numbers and continue the war for 4 years. 

From an article by Confederate General Jones, published 
in the Philadelphia Times in 1884, we find that the order of 
assault was " First: WofTord's Georgia and Humphrey's Mis- 
sissippi brigades were selected to make the assault, the first 
on the left, the second on the right; this latter followed closely 
by three regiments of Bryan's brigade; the Sixteenth Georgia 
to lead the first and the Thirteenth Mississippi the second 
assaulting column. Second: the brigades to be formed for 
the attack in columns of regiments. Third: The assault to be 
made with fixed bayonets and without firing guns, etc., etc." 
General Jones gives reasons for attacking Fort Sanders 
instead of a weaker point, but though interesting this paper 
is already too long to admit of many quotations. In a foot- 
note he says : ''The Seventy-ninth New York had their revenge, 
if they wanted it, at Knoxville for their reception at Secession- 
ville, S. C, on the i6th of June, 1862. There the positions 
were reversed." 

In referring to this assault the Southern historian. Pollard, 
in his "Third Year of the War," says: "In this terrible ditch 
the dead were piled 8 or 10 deep. Never excepting at Gettys- 
burg was there in the history of the war a disaster adorned 
with the glory of such devout courage as Longstreet's repulse 
at Knoxville." 



i8 



Two days later news o^^eneral Grant's victory at 
Chattanooga was embodied in a congratulatory address by 
General Burnside. Help was on the way and would soon 
reach us, but renewed vigilance was urged, as the enemy might 
make another attempt to capture Knoxville and ourselves 
before the arrival of relief, but though the enemy appeared 
as active as ever, and on the 2d December pushed their lines 
still farther forward, no attack was made, -md on the morning 
of the 5th, and the eighteenth day of the siege, it was found 
that the enemy, during the night, 

" Had folded their tents like Lhe Arabs, 
And silently stolen away." 



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